Vegas, baby!!

Let me give you some background info about this unusual choice of wedding reception theme...

Whisky and I along with our good friends Jack (Jack Daniel's), Cider, Champagne and Red Wine all loved this club called Vegas!! which was held every three months or so at The Forum in Aberdeen.

This was the place to be for swingers; and I mean the music kind, not the 'car keys in a bowl' kind.

The Vegas night was absolutely brilliant; you got fake vegas dollars as part of your admission fee which you could use to play the roulette table or black jack.

The music was inspired, and covered everything from the sixties Vegas era, from latin jazz to ratpack to Elvis, swing, easy listening and beyond. It was just a great laugh, the atmosphere was helped a lot by the couple of showgirls that they would have every night, and they helped to get everyone dancing.

The best part of Vegas for me was that people from all ages and backgrounds went to Vegas. In what other club night do you see a married couple in their 80s dancing alongside a bunch of girls on their hen night and a bunch of students out on the razz?

Unfortunately (for us), the people that do Vegas now have their own club in Edinburgh and haven't ventured up north since its opening. Such was our sadness that our Vegas days had come to an end, we decided that we would like to recreate it for our wedding reception.

The other things that Whisky and I wanted was for our wedding to be personal. We wanted for our wedding festivities to be held in places that meant something to us. That is why we had the wedding ceremony at Kings College Chapel, as we are both involved in the community there.

By the same reasoning, that is why we also decided to hold our wedding reception at The Tunnels. Yet another controversial choice and one that I think some guests at our wedding weren't sure of, as it is actually a live music venue. Well, The Tunnels certainly put the doubters in their place. I could not have wished for a better wedding reception. Here is a list of the things that The Tunnels staff did to make it brilliant:

• The whole place was cleaned from top to bottom, and the reception room smelled lovely using scented candles.


• They made seperate dishes for the children, veggies and a completely seperate menu for one of my friends that has a lot of allergies.


• All of the food was gorgeous; I have lost count of how many comments I have received about the quality of the food.


• The main meals were served on plates that were piping hot, so even if people had to faff about a bit before their meal it was still hot by the time they got to it.
• One of my relatives had to go away for a while for his job, but they kept his dinner aside and kept it warm for him until his return.


• The desserts were massive.


• They set up Tunnel 1 for the Vegas night and Tunnel 2 as a quiet room where people could chat. Later on they served some macaroni cheese, stovies and chilli for our evening guests.


• The Vegas theme was used straight away, as our guests received a poker chip when they arrived which could be redeemed at the bar for their first drink of the night.


• The Tunnels staff helped us distribute our little Vegas dollars and our wedding favours,which were a set of four tealights which had the four card suits on them :-)



Absolutely brilliant, you would think that they had been doing it for years, but we were the first ever wedding reception at The Tunnels, and I've got a feeling that we won't be the last.

As I said before, Tunnel 1 held our Vegas night, and we called in favours from all of our friends. Including one of our mates who is a professional poker player and had amassed a fortune from playing online. He was the dealer at our poker table, with Tunnels staff running the roulette and black jack. We had a cardboard cutout of the famous 'Welcome to Vegas' sign' and coloured rope lights to give it a glam feel. And yours truly was dressed up as a showgirl!! :-) We had a fab singer who sang ratpack songs for the first hour, and then a DJ who played CDs that Whisky and I made up especially for our reception.

For those of you out there who think that you might fancy having a Vegas night, here's a list of some of the music that we used:

Michael Buble - Can't Buy Me Love (swing version of the Beatle's classic)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Go Daddy 'O
Ray Gelato - Tu Vuo 'Fa L'Americano
Elvis Presley - Devil in Disguise
Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas
Paul Anka - Mr. Brightside (swing version of the song by The Killers)
Rosemary Clooney - Mambo Italiano
Liza Minelli - You Are the Sunshine of my Life
Dean Martin - Ain't that a kick in the head
Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jnr - Me and my shadow ( our first dance)
Frank Sinatra - You make me feel so young
Frank Sinatra - Come Fly with me
Frank Sinatra - Fly me to the Moon
Michael Buble - I've got you under my skin
Frank Sinatra - The coffee song
Dean Martin - Sway
Glenn Miller - Chattanooga Choo Choo
Glenn Miller - In the Mood
Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher
Nina Simone - My baby just cares for me
Van Morrison - Moondance
Perez Prado and his orchestra - Guaglione (from the infamous Guinness ad)
Tito Puente & his latin ensemble - Take Five
Harry Connick Jnr - Recipe for Love
Harry Connick Jnr - We Are in Love
Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea
Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo


Swing on, Daddy O :-)